So my interview went extremely smoothly and will be crucial in my research material for this community.  I interviewed the current president of Engineers Without Borders (EWB).  She was excited to be a help in  my research and provided me with valuable information. The reason I chose her to interview is because she is high in the ranks and is very informed and connected with the community on all levels.  Also, she is a student, so knows what its like to be involved as an undergrad.  I began with simple, factual questions such as "How long have you been involved?" and "How long have you been president?" just to get a background.  Then the meat of the interview came......which was very meaty if I say so myself.  I entered with a set of ideas about the community but left with an insider's view and a completely altered idea of what EWB was.  The community as a whole is much tighter than I thought, but also acts internationally and allows it members to have valuable professional connections abroad and nationally.  Overall from my interview I got how the community functions and what it does for its members.  My site visit went equally as well.  I got to see the workings of EWB and got to sit in first hand on the group interactions.  I was involved in the relationships and business aspects of the group.  Some words that I jotted down were:
Helpful, volunteer, attention, projects, intimate, smiles, input/change, brainstorming, side conversations, and sustainability
just to name a few.  I caught up on some of the terms and "language" of the group also.  Both were valuable and I hope to continue contact with my interviewee for any followup questions I may have while doing further research
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
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2 comments:
I think your post was really interesting because of the very last part where you were talking about the terms that the group uses. That's a big part of my project too--getting through the jargon to actually understand what's going on. Anyway, cool post and I really thought it was a good idea that you did that list of words to describe the site; I think I'm going to go back and do that if I can remember, since my site visit was yesterday.
Since you are now finding out more about EWB are you interested in becoming a member? How do you become a member? Nice sitting next to you in the library today : )
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